NUMMI’s stadium opposition

NUMMI wrote a strongly-worded letter to the city last week about an A’s stadium in Warm Springs. The car manufacturing plant, which is also Fremont’s largest employer, states its opposition to the project, but then at the end states that it looks forward to working on the planning process.

Here’s part of the letter from NUMMI General Counsel K. Kelley McKenzie:

From the outset, it is hard to imagine how NUMMI could continue to operate with a ballpark immediately adjacent to it. The traffic congestion from a ballpark would seem a sure barrier to on-time delivery of parts needed for production. But the A’s may have some unique idea of how freeway off ramps/onramps could be added/improved, the stadium could be strategically situated, numerous surface streets could be widened, parking could be configured, etc. to avert that result. If that is the case, we would like to see that plan from the beginning of the planning process. The planned ingress/egress and infrastructure improvements or lack thereof could all have tremendous impact on our operations as well as all of the other businesses and residents nearby.

If the plan is to announce officially Warm Springs as a primary site, please only issue an NOP (notice of preparation) in which the precise location of the ballpark and the surrounding proposed development along with all of the infrastructure improvements are clearly delineated. Then, we ask that a full-scale EIR (environmental impact report) process be initiated from that point. EIRs for the two sites should not be conflated, as the impacts of two developments are likely quite different.

We look forward to working with staff as this planning process progresses.